Quote

I consciously try to end my novels at a point where I won't have to wonder about my characters ever again.

Anne Tyler

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Anne Tyler
Age: 83
Born: 1941
Born: October 25
Librarian
Novelist
Short Story Writer
Writer
Minneapolis
Minnesota
Trying
Characters
Novel
Wonder
Literature
Point
Ends
Character
Consciously
Ever
Novels

More quotes by Anne Tyler

Image
Point of view is not something I consciously decide. Almost always, when I come up with a plot I find that the point of view has automatically arrived with it, part and parcel of the story.
Anne Tyler
Image
Isn't a memorial service meant to comfort the living?
Anne Tyler
Image
I write because I want more than one life I insist on a wider selection. It’s greed, plain and simple. When my characters join the circus, I’m joining the circus. Although I’m happily married, I spent a great deal of time mentally living with incompatible husbands.
Anne Tyler
Image
It is not how much you love someone, but who you are when you are with him.
Anne Tyler
Image
View your burden as a gift. It's the theme that has been given you to work with. Accept that and lean into it.
Anne Tyler
Image
I'm falling into disrepair
Anne Tyler
Image
In real life I avoid all parties altogether, but on paper I can mingle with the best of them
Anne Tyler
Image
Time, in general, has always been a central obsession of mine - what it does to people, how it can constitute a plot all on its own. So naturally, I am interested in old age.
Anne Tyler
Image
The very thing that attracts you to someone can end up putting you off.
Anne Tyler
Image
People imagine that missing a loved one works kind of like missing cigarettes,' he said. 'The first day is really hard but the next day is less hard and so forth, easier and easier the longer you go on. But instead it's like missing water. Every day, you notice the person's absence more.
Anne Tyler
Image
While armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put.
Anne Tyler
Image
I write because I want to have more than one life.
Anne Tyler
Image
Smells could bring a person back clearer than pictures even could.
Anne Tyler
Image
There's surprisingly little difference between writing from a male angle and from a female angle, but I feel more restricted in my language when I'm writing as a male character because males tend to sound less emotionally expressive than females.
Anne Tyler
Image
I've always thought sleep was a wonderful invention. Not that being awake isn't nice too, of course. But when I get up in the morning, I think, boy, only fourteen more hours and I can be back to sleep again ... And I never dream, because it distracts my mind from pure sleeping.
Anne Tyler
Image
Liam really enjoyed a good movie. He found it restful to watch people's conversations without being expected to join in. But he always felt sort of lonesome if he didn't have someone next to him to nudge in the ribs at the good parts.
Anne Tyler
Image
... everyone must play his role.
Anne Tyler
Image
She was good at talking with young people. She seemed to view them as interesting foreigners.
Anne Tyler
Image
None of my own experiences ever finds its way into my work. However, the stages of my life - motherhood, middle age, etc. - often influence my subject matter.
Anne Tyler
Image
Farmers are patient men. They got to be. Got to see those seeds come up week by week, fraction by fraction, and sweat it out for some days not knowing yet is it weeds or vegetables.
Anne Tyler